Electronic devices, such as Integrated Circuits (ICs), may be subjected to various security attacks, in which an unauthorized party attempts to access confidential information processed or stored in the IC. Various techniques may be used to mitigate such attacks.
For example, U.S. Patent Application Publication 2009/0001821, whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference, describes a system for protecting a chip with an integrated circuit disposed on a first surface. The system includes, disposed on the first surface, a first antenna, signal analyzer, chip controller and a signal generator which is operative to supply an outbound signal for transmission by the first antenna. A circuit arrangement, disposed on a second surface of the chip, including a shielding arrangement and a second antenna to receive the outbound signal.
U.S. Patent Application Publication 2013/0314121, whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference, describes a method for detecting an attack, such as by laser, on an electronic microcircuit from a backside of a substrate. The method includes, forming the microcircuit on the semiconductor substrate, the microcircuit comprising a circuit to be protected against attacks, forming photodiodes between components of the circuit to protected, forming a circuit for comparing a signal supplied by each photodiode with a threshold value, and forming a circuit for activating a detection signal when a signal at output of one of the photodiodes crosses the threshold value.
U.S. Patent Application Publication 2016/0218071, whose disclosure incorporated herein by reference, describes an integrated circuit, including a detector circuit that includes a sensor configured to sense an alteration to a physical characteristic of a substrate and to generate an alarm signal indicating such alteration and a circuit configured to respond to the generation of the alarm signal by implementing countermeasures. A smart card may include such a circuit to counteract a backside attack.